1. I’ve got kind of into horoscopes. I used to read them religiously when I bought women’s magazines back in 2004ish, when I was 14ish. Then I stopped. Then a few months ago I read some and I was like, you know what, this is getting me pumped. Nothing gets me pumped anymore! I gotta make a note of this. So I followed a couple websites on my Feedly, and recently talked about it on twitter, and someone gave me a bit more info, and basically I’m totally into it. I still can’t read most of anything, I’m not sure I believe much, I’m not sure I put much weight on it— but what I get out of it is immeasurable and I just don’t get it out of anywhere else. I feel silly even saying it. But when someone says just what you need to hear— even if it’s bad!— and you don’t have a “legitimate” source (yet— shocking news, I have a psych appt on August 8 for the first time in years) telling you these things? It can easily be what gets you from A to B. And so far it’s not led me astray once.

Here’s what I’m reading on a weekly basis: The Numinous, and Chani Nicholas. Usually Chani I find incredibly opaque and Numinous is to the point; this week it was the opposite. And I was just introduced to Amelia Quint, who gave me a little bit of info on my chart and I look forward to reading going forward.

3. The dress and the photos in this Mode and the City post are fighting for my attention. There’s something so wonderfully calm about it all, and her look is, as always, perfect.

4. Media consumption is a part of my life again, with ups and downs. I watched all of Santa Clarita Diet, which was entertaining, if not something I’ll remember much of in five days (or now). Then I started Grace & Frankie even though, not unlike zombies, it is not my thing, and watched a season before I decided I was both feeling it too much and not feeling it enough, and wanted the daughters to feature more heavily.

After that, I got sucked in by iZombie. That is probably the first TV show I’ve watched in many, many years — since I stopped writing fanfic, in fact — that I’ve felt fannish about, that I’ve wanted to expand on, that I’ve felt invested in in a good way and wanted to go on. Like I said above, zombies are not usually my thing, but the mythology here is quite all right, and I love that the plot expands while keeping a tight focus on the main cast, and that the secrets do keep getting out in a timely manner. I ship basically everyone with everyone, and I wish it had a bigger fandom, but at least the show itself is doing well, doing so, so well, and so far doesn’t seem like one I’ll be bitter about for years to come (sup, Vampire Diaries).

I’m looking for something new now and I started Lovesick, but as much as I like Antonia Thomas I just don’t know that I’m feeling it too much. So I may switch to something else. I still got Brooklyn Nine-Nine to catch up on.

4. I read The Upside of Unrequited by Becky Albertalli and it was amazing. Just. Goddamn. Books are the best, giddy happy amazing. Loved it to bits. Happy I can now read Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda and there’s even a connection!

Earlier this year — finishing it just as I got to Munich; I’ll expand on my travels at some point, promise! — I also read Georgia Peaches and Other Forbidden Fruit by Jaye Robin Brown, and I could not recommend it more, either. I’ve had very good luck with my picks so far this year. They’re both organically diverse, beautiful coming-of-age stories, with fleshed-out sibling and family relationships and oh my god, Mary Carlson. Oh my god. And the way I related to Unrequited’s Molly in regards to Reid? A HUG.

5. Summer is way underway, too underway, please-get-it-away-from-me underway, and it’s getting me all confused about laundry because there’s so little to wash that I feel I should toss in more… but it’s just less fabric, isn’t it, and also: there are only so many summer clothes I can actually wear when the temp is in the high 90sF/30sC, and all I have is a fan that keeps warming up when it’s on too long.

I’m not going to lie — when I say ‘capsule’ in the post title, I don’t really mean ‘clothes you can mix and match for maximum functionality’ this time (see previous capsules here and here). I’m thinking more about a receptacle in which you can live, like a cave where a bear hibernates, and the things you might want to have in it before holing up and not coming out until the sun does, like a bear when it hibernates.

These days I leave the house like, once or twice a week, usually the day after the wine runs out. I try to run all my errands at the same time, too; my town is pretty small so I might as well disrupt my routines as little as possible. I’m happy to tell you I’m no longer so unstable that going to the supermarket messes up my entire day, but I’m still lazy, and let’s be real, even if you go out every day, the best thing about winter is curling up on your bed or an armchair with a hot beverage, a book and your choice of cat furry pet, wrapped up in something warm and comfortable. Mmm, cozying up.

And just in case you forgot that a) I mentioned a book and b) I read, I come bearing book recs, too! Because I’ve looked forward to and tweeted about two fall releases far too much not to mention them here as well.

This fall, two of my favorite non-fiction writers released new material. First, it was the incomparable (shut up) Jenny Lawson, the Bloggess, who followed up Let’s Pretend This Never Happened, a book so hysterical I translated entire passages to my sister on the fly, with Furiously Happy. Furiously Happy is just as hilarious, but delves even deeper into Jenny’s experiences with depression and other disorders, including acute social anxiety, with passages as heartbreaking as they are, for me and many other people, massively relatable. Her flying fears are my flying fears! There are also (live) cats and (taxidermied) raccoons, and if you don’t think taxidermied animals can be fucking funny, you’re about to be converted.

The other new book I just started reading last night is Lafayette in the Somewhat United States by Sarah Vowell, who you may recognize from This American Life (a podcast I’ve only heard a tidbit of, though I mainlined its spin-off Serial) or appearances on The Daily Show (where I have in fact seen her; she was one of Jon Stewart’s last guests). I know very little about the period of American History in her book — or any other periods — though it’s getting a big fandom push lately with the Hamilton musical, which I swear I will listen to in time (Renee Elise Goldberry! My love, my light) — but I’ve inhaled about four of Vowell’s books, starting with probably my favorite, Assassination Vacation, and her writing style is just so goddamn engaging I know I will care. She probably shoulders 80% of the responsibility for my morbid interest in the Civil War era, so you know she’s got chops. Also, like, she’s Sarah Vowell. So give it a go if you don’t know her.

That should keep you cozy and entertained for a while! Now back to your cat.

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. In fact most links are affiliate links. That means I may make a small commission if you purchase! And I mean small. But a commission all the same. Esprit unfortunately does not have an affiliate program that I’m aware of, but boy, am I in love with their collection… surprising absolutely no one.

I’ve been a fan of Eileen Cook since I read my first book by her, Unraveling Isobel. Unraveling Isobel has a little bit of mystery set on an island near Seattle with a side dish of stepsibling romance, so obviously I was hooked. Her writing is simply and engaging, just how I like my YA, and it’s extremely easy to read and read and not put her books down at all. Seeing as my attention span is limited, this comes in handy.

After Unraveling Isobel, I read Unpredictable, which was awful. You can read my review on GoodReads, which is appropriately tagged “enraging fail.” The main character is painfully lacking in self-awareness, and she pulls all these awful stunts that are unnecessary at best and plain old gaslighting at worst.

But I’m a sucker for YA (Unpredictable was adult), and I like to read things by authors I already know are capable of writing things I like. So after Unpredictable, I read The Education of Hailey Kendrick, which, despite some casual slutshaming here and there, was a freaking joy. It has a love triangle that’s more like a quadrangle, and it makes it work. I love when books do that.

So next I picked up Getting Revenge On Lauren Wood, which I believe is the book Eileen Cook is best-known for writing, judging by how it always says “Author of Getting Revenge On Lauren Wood” under her name on all her other book covers. Getting Revenge on Lauren Wood is revenge fantasy, which I find impossibly eh, but it’s revenge fantasy moored in high school tropes, which I find impossibly comforting. I was pretty into it from the beginning, and then it went better places than I thought it would. It was just nice lighthearted entertainment.

I read all of these books in 2012. Yeah, it’s been a while — and it’s been a while since I read a fiction book at all. But I was scrolling through my ebook library on Saturday night, and feeling a bit giddy looking at all the covers since I finally uploaded all my ebooks to Google Play Books, and my eyes fell upon The Almost Truth.

I saw this book chat link-up over at Life With a Side of Coffee and I thought I’d pitch in with a small post. I don’t have thoughts to share on covers — not at this particular moment, anyway — or an absolute favorite book cover — some I like, some I dislike, some I love — but the first one that popped into my head was the UK cover of Malinda Lo’s Ash, the one on the left:

Not that the one on the right isn’t pretty — it’s quite lovely — but it was the UK version my library bought on my request, and it was the UK version I read and, when I was done reading, decided to sketch. If you’ve known me for a while, you know drawing is very much not a talent I possess, and I’m fairly self-conscious about it. That’s why I don’t draw properly. When I do draw, it’s by black pen on a scrap of paper, something that doesn’t make me feel like I need to make an effort at all because hey, it’s just a doodle.

But I like how this doodle came out, so I kept it and now I’m showing it to you all. It seemed appropriate.